


New scars and old love

by Pearlislove



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Declarations Of Love, Domestic Fluff, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Love, Twenty-four years on Darillium
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-18
Updated: 2017-04-18
Packaged: 2018-10-20 13:44:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,332
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10663851
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pearlislove/pseuds/Pearlislove
Summary: Their love is old, but they got new scars, and new things to learn.





	New scars and old love

**Author's Note:**

> River and Twelve domestic fluff

"Give me your hands." It’s soft, kind and caring instead of rough and demanding. She's always this way with this him, the new him. It seems, as he's grown out of his boyish phase and embraced his age, she has grown out of her cocky, stoic facade and embraced her own vulnerability.   
  
He is leaning back against the sofa, eyes closed and hands buried in his pockets as he rested, but now he cracks his ice blue eyes open and look at her. "Why?" He asks, not dismissive or angry, just curious.   
  
"I just want to hold them. Look at them. " She admits honestly, their new rule number one, 'no lying', her only reassurance that she's doing it right.    
  
Wordlessly, he nods, pulling his thin, bony hands  out of his pockets and offer them to her. A token to show his trust, when he still struggles so completely with being touched.    
  
Looking at them like a child would a christmas decoration, admiring them as something fragile and so, so precious, River carefully took The Doctor’s hands in her and held them. Her own tiny fingers closed around his thin wrists as she admired the tall, spidery fingers, five on each hand, all of them so thin and yet perfectly strong and steady.   
  
Ever so careful, knowing how perceptive and sensitive this new Doctor of hers is to even the smallest touch,  she slowly let her fingers travel up his fingers. Almost immediately, she comes upon a thin white line following half of his right index finger, and she stops , glancing up at his eyes. His ice blue eyes are watching her, and as he notice she's stopped, he highers an eyebrow.   
  
"How did you get the scar?" She asks, almost challenging him with her own eyes.   
  
"Tried to make soup."   
  
She laughed, almost giggling, because of course he was making soup, only The Doctor - her doctor - could very nearly cut his finger off making soup.   
  
"I'm serious." He says, a little grumpy. "It was...oh it must have been Mel, who asked me to cut onions for soup. She never did ask me to do that again, I'm afraid." He is laughing too, smiling .   
  
River looked closer at the scar, tracing it with her finger and watching it in fascination. "Why haven't I seen it before? Mels was with your sixth and seventh self, that was a long time ago. I should have seen it before."   
  
At this, The Doctor shrugs. "I was more vain before. It seems I'm not only letting on when it comes to age, but appearance as well. There's a lot of scars you've never seen before that are here now."   
  
"Oh really?" She continous her tracing, more concentrated than before, attempting to find any other new scars. She doesn't like it, the idea that he's been hiding so much of his life from her - from everyone, really. That he felt too scared to let on what was hiding beneath the surface to actually let it show.   
  
The Doctor just sit back and watch as his wife continous tracing the lengths of his fingers, stopping when she finds scars, letting silence settle and wait for him to tell her about it. If too much time pass, she'll ask, and if he doesn't answer, she continues. She knows he will tell her all in due time - pushing it has never done any of them any good.   
  
Finally, she's down to his ring finger on his left hand, soft and perfectly manicured hands stopping as they come upon the two rings he wear. The Doctor can sense that something is not quite right, that there’s a tension in River that wasn't there before, and he longs to pull her closer, but stays perfectly still.    
  
River feels thankful as The Doctor stays perfectly still, only showing in the way he shifts slightly that he is entirely aware that she’s paused. Her hands are wrapping around his left ring finger, studying the two golden rings he has there. Before, he didn't have any rings, didn’t wear jewellery at all, but now he does and she wonders why. She keeps staring at them, twisting them and inspecting them until finally she can find her voice and ask.   
  
"What are they? You never had any rings before." She is soft, more careful than ever before, because she knows she is walking on eggshells.   
  


The Doctor sigh, untangling his hand from River's and wrap both of them around her waist, pulling her closer to him so he could kiss her upon the head. He knew her question would eventually come, and had promised himself not to lie when it did, but it was easier said than done.   
  
"This one" He holds his hand up and points to the one that is just a simple gold band, no details or anything else. "My first wife gave it to me, the day we were bound. She said it was a human tradition, and had me slipping one on her finger too."    
  
Hesitantly, River’s hands came back to his finger, inspecting the ring again. "Your first wife...that was back on Gallifrey. You had children, didn’t you?" Her voice is so small, equal parts fascinated and scared, and he use his free hand to pull her in closer again.   
  
"Yes. But it was long ago. So long ago, that now all that is left is memories. Now, all that I love, is you." He kiss her, again, surprised as she responds by turning her head upwards and giving him a quick peck on the lips. It's chast, but it holds love and understanding in equal measures and he's not sure which he appreciates the most.   
  
"And the other one?" She looks into his eyes, as she asks, and she doesn't miss the clouds of pain gathering in them, destroying the beauty of them with their implications. The ring has a dark history, and River wasn’t quit sure if she was ready to know, but she'd asked the question and that meant one day the answer would come.   
  
After only a moment, though, the clouds of pain leave. Suddenly,  there's no more fear and pain in the anymore, and instead The Doctor is softly smiling.   
  
"That" He says, taking her tiny soft hand, so small it almost disappeared as it was placed in the palm of his. "Is your ring." Without hesitation, River simply watching him in astonishment, he slipped the ring off his finger.    
  
Once off his finger, he held it up, let River get a good look at it as it glimmered when it caught the light of the setting sun outside, before sliding it onto her ring finger. It was too big, a little clumsy looking on her small finger, but River could honestly say she'd want no other ring rather than this one.   
  
"It's mine?" She asks, holding up her hand and examining the way it looked with the additional piece of jewellery. She liked it, imagined getting used to it over the years until finally it didn’t feel right without it. Until she forgot it was he who used to wear it once.   
  
The Doctor smiled, kissing her hair again as she automatically leaned against him when he leaned back against the back of the sofa. "Yes. It was always meant for you." He says, carefully hiding all the thoughts and emotions behind it.   
  
He will never tell her, that she gave it to him. That when they met in the library she slipped it into the pocket of Sand Shoes pinstripe suit without him noticing, just so that he could one day give it to her himself.   
  
Now, he thinks, the deed is done. Their fate is sealed, and the circle complet. It fills him with the sadness of a loss yet to come, but the happiness of what actually are. Because, at least for now, he was hers and she was his, each of them perfectly knowing of the love they had.   
  
  
  
  
  
  



End file.
